RhoDeo 1240 Roots

Hello, i hope you liked last night start of The Byron Chronicles, i re uploaded  per request, Quando Quango, if you come across a dead link just give me a notice. I noticed myself that Filecloud is having problems when previously it gave me 400kps it now does 10, clearly some growth problems there.

This week another ON U supergroup, Dub Syndicate, looking at my index there might be more later... Njoy !

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Dub Syndicate (DS) first surfaced as an addition to the credits of Prince Far I's "Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter III" being given credit for overdubs along with Adrian Sherwood. So just as African Head Charge was to become the vehicle for the talents of Bonjo I, so DS would provide the creative housing for Lincoln Valentine "Style" Scott as an alternative to the Roots Radics, who had proved to be such a powerfully influential force in reggae from the late seventies through the early eighties.

Drummer Style Scott joined Adrian Sherwood's influential On-U Sound dub label in the late '70s and played on Sherwood's influential releases as part of the New Age Steppers (with vocalist Bim Sherman, horn player Deadly Headley, melodica player Dr. Pablo, and a large guest lineup). Scott later formed his own band, Dub Syndicate, which soon became -- with the possible exception of African Headcharge -- On-U Sound's most popular act. Though not a group per se, Style Scott and producer Sherwood explore reggae, dub, and dancehall by collaborating with some of reggae and dub's greatest talents, including Lee "Scratch" Perry, Skip McDonald, U-Roy, and, in a bit of posthumous sampling of an old friend, Prince Far I (on 1990's Stoned Immaculate).

Debut album Pounding System (1982) and the following year's One Way System were both reissued in America by ROIR. A project with Dr. Pablo titled North of the River Thames didn't earn a domestic release, but 1985's Tunes from the Missing Channel was licensed to EMI. An import-only project with Lee "Scratch" Perry called Time Boom 'De Devil Dead followed in 1986, but 1990's Strike the Balance appeared on the Island subsidiary Mango. On-U Sound, in conjunction with the American label Restless, began an ambitious reissue effort with three volumes of the Classic Selection series (similar to African Headcharge's Great Vintage series) but continued to make new Dub Syndicate projects such as From the Secret Laboratory and Stoned Immaculate available only on import. Restless, though, did eventually give Stoned Immaculate and 1994's Echomania domestic releases.

In 1996, Dub Syndicate released both an album of new material (Ital Breakfast), and the remix album Research & Development, with reworkings of tracks from the entire Dub Syndicate catalog by Zion Train, Soundclash, Iration Steppas, and the Rootsman. Four years later, the performance album Live at the Maritime Hall was released. The next album, Acres of Space, was recorded in Jamaica and mixed by longtime collaborator Adrian Smith. Murder Tone from 2002 collected classic and unreleased tracks and was followed two years later by the new album No Bed of Roses. Pure Thrill Seekers appeared in 2005 with guest shots from Luciano, Cornell Campbell, and Gregory Isaacs. In 2006 the two-disc set The Rasta Far I was released, and two years later the Collision label released Overdubbed -- actually the first disc of The Rasta Far I -- featuring 17 Dub Syndicate tracks remixed by Smith & Mighty's Rob Smith.


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Paralleling other English reggae outfits like UB40 and Mad Professor's Ariwa band during the late '70s and early '80s, Adrian Sherwood's various On U Sound outfits took off from Jamaican dub and vocal music to create something both similar and unique. While primarily inspired by the dub of King Tubby and company as well as the slicker sound of dancehall luminaries like the Roots Radics band and producer Henry "Junjo" Lawes, the Dub Syndicate, for one, also incorporated rock elements and a host of original dub effects: drums sound harder and more insistent than on most Jamaican sides, the piano and horns play a more prominent role, and, in an admitted quest for ambient sounds, echo, flanger, and reverb effects are wrought with their own brand of frenetic twist and turns. This Dub Syndicate debut from 1982 captures most of the attractive mix and remains one of Sherwood's best releases. While maybe not as daring as more electronica-minded and big beat-filled releases that followed, Pounding System has stood the test of time better than many On U Sound titles with its subtle marriage of Jamaican music and Sherwood's aesthetics.

Dub Syndicate ‎- The Pounding System (Ambience In Dub) (flac  236mb)

01 Pounding Systems 5:17
02 Hi-Fi Gets A Pounding (Pts. 1+2) 5:24
03 "African Head Charge" -Don't Care About Space Invader Machines (Pts. 1+2) 6:09
04 Fringe On Top Dub 4:29
05 Humourless Journalist Works To Rules 3:56
06 10K At 0VU - 60 Hz - Mind Boggles! 4:03
07 Crucial Tony Tries To Rescue The Space Invaders (With Only 10p) 3:23
08 Hi-Fi Gets A Pounding (Pt.3) 4:06
09 Return To Stage One 3:03

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"Tunes From The Missing Channel" ("Tunes" for short) was originally released in June 1985 and was not so much a follow-up to the previous work but more of an initiation of a whole new genre. What we now know today as "new roots" can track its modern development back to this album as its source. What was different about "Tunes" though was the discovery of some new technology, its use and abuse.

Whilst in Switzerland working with Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul fame, Sherwood, together with then partner and keyboard-player Kishi Yamamoto, discovered an emulator for the first time - hence the delight in pulling the sitar sound from the keyboard which resulted in the almost prosaically titled "Ravi Shankar Pt.1" . Also, before sampling had a name, Sherwood stumbled upon the technique of what he called "captured sound" by utilising the locking function in the AMS digital harmoniser. No need to bleed all over the tape deck a la Double D & Steinski as a result of razored edits, instead you just invoke Emperor Rosko via machine triggers to appear in "The Show Is Coming" .

And so in "Tunes" we have the earliest manifestation of the use of the kind of technology which is today commonplace in the production of the new roots reggae/dub all over the world. The collaborative nature of the enterprise brought together ex-PIL playmates Jah Wobble and Keith Levene in addition to members of African Head Charge and Creation Rebel, the sweet crooning of Bim Sherman and the apparently game for anything Steve Beresford. The result was the grouping of tracks that eventually became "Tunes", one of the best-selling albums in the entire On-U catalogue.

Dub Syndicate ‎- Tunes From The Missing Channel (flac  241mb)

01 Ravi Shankar Part 1 3:43
02 The Show Is Coming 4:49
03 Must Be Dreaming 4:25
04 Over Board 3:40
05 Forever More 4:16
06 Geoffrey Boycott 4:32
07 Wellie 2:57
08 Jolly 4:10
09 Out And About 5:46

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This album finds Dub Syndicate back to full strength, it's a timeless dub album - still sounds fresh after 20 years. It is build on solid lively riddims with lots of electronic sounds around them.. Drummer "Style" Scott and bassist "Flabba" Holt keep everyone together with monstrous reggae riddims, while Adrian Sherwood tears things up around them from his perch at the mixing board. Lee "Scratch" Perry makes a couple of hilarious cameo appearances, in one case sentencing all "heads of government" to "poverty and famine and hardship and bad luck." Everywhere the rhythms are airtight and relentlessly propulsive. One song manages to quote successfully the American gospel standard "Walking in Jerusalem Just Like John." A rare and wonderful recording.

Dub Syndicate - Echomania (flac  356mb)

01 Roots Commandment 5:44
02 Dubbing Psycho Thriller 4:19
03 Dubaddisababa 6:03
04 Walking Jerusalem 4:22
05 No No 5:10
06 '93 Struggle 3:14
07 2001 Love 8:06
08 What Happened? 4:58
09 Green Stick 4:03
10 Rock Back 4:50
11 Echomania 5:21

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